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PP_OF*OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY" IX THE UOT 



THE 



HISTORICAL INFLUENCE 



OF THE 



MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



AN ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BEFOEE THE 



,NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE, 



DECEMBER 10, 18C 



BY 

JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, M.D., LL.D., 

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY IN THE TTNIYEESITY OF NEW YOEK. 



w^ — ' — 

*^» PUBLISHED BY OEDEB OF THE ACADEMY. 





NEW YOEK: 
BAILLIERE BROTHERS, 440 BROADWAY. 

LONDON: — H. BAILLIERE, 219 REGENT STREET. 

PARIS: — J. B. BAILLIERE ET FILS, RUE HAUTEFEUILLE. 

MADRID: — C. BAILLY-BAILLIERE, CALLE DEL PRINCIPE. 

1863. 



-s^ 



R. CRAIGHEAD, 
Printer, Stereoiyper, and Electrotyper, 

Carton CutRitng, 

81, 83, and 85 Centre Street. 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 



Mb. President and Fellows of the New York Academy 
op Medicine ; 

Oue profession has had a recognised existence in 
Europe for nearly twenty-three hundred years. 
Among its great men have been those who were the 
intimate, often the invisible counsellors of emperors, 
kings, sultans, popes; of the personages who have 
swayed the destinies of the civilized world, and 
made it what it is. 

Occupied with the anxieties and responsibilities of 
his daily life, the physician is too prone to think that 
the exercise of his influence is limited to the little 
circle of individuals who fall under his immediate 
charge. He sees that their health, their happiness, 
their existence often depend upon him, and> not with- 
out excusable pride, finds satisfaction in the success- 
ful discharge of his duties. He recounts to himself, 
perhaps also to others, disease overcome in so many 
cases, life prolonged in so many. As a good citizen 
of the world, he completes his personal task, giving 
himself no concern how far his power may have 
imperceptibly spread. 

Now, I intend this evening to lead you to the con- 



4 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

sideration of such neglected influences, not so much, 
however, those exerted by the individual as by the 
aggregate of all physicians — the medical profession. 
On many occasions, when even the fate of nations 
and continents was concerned, their thoughts and 
their actions have determined the event. 

At the so-called restoration of learning in Europe 
— so-called, for that cannot be restored which has 
never before existed — the social condition presented 
a very singular appearance. A belief in the marvel- 
lous, the supernatural, pervaded all except the high- 
est ranks. There were fairies in the moonshine, 
ghosts in the darkness, apparitions in the twilight, 
goblins in the kitchen, spectres in the garret. Along 
with these spiritual folk, whose unwelcome presence 
could not be contemplated without dread, were 
others of a more tangible but perhaps not of a less 
awful kind — the old crone who passed for a witch, the 
mis-shapen dwarf for a familiar of Satan, the wan- 
dering vagabond who made a living out of the ter- 
rors of the community for a necromancer, and, 
strange to say, conspicuous in this evil list, the doc- 
tor, who was always a Jew. 

In the eyes of that generation, the Jew was a fear- 
ful and hated man. He had the faculty of amassing 
wealth mysteriously. He could transport it invisibly 
from one nation to another, in a manner incompre- 
hensible to people, from whom he kept his secret 
invention of bills of exchange. The red-handed 
baron, who with his banditti had lain in wait for a 
passing caravan, went home to his fastness without 
any Israelitish gold. No Hebrew followed the 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 5 

plough, not one was seen at the ' forge. He was 
where quick money might be made. He was buy- 
ing, selling, lending, always amassing. His cosmo- 
politan habits added not a little to the mystery. 
The Jew of London and Paris knew very well what 
was going on at Venice, nay, even in Egypt and in 
Syria — places which in popular apprehension were 
somewhere on the confines of the world. 

If that was the character of the trading Jew, the 
Jew who was a doctor was ten-fold more sinister. 
There was nothing too stupendous for him. It was 
affirmed of Zedekias, the physician of Charles the 
Bald, that in presence of the whole court he eat up 
a wagon, with, its load of hay, and also the horses 
and driver. All the world believed it. No little 
weight was given to such public opinions by the fact 
that every person who was rich enough and power- 
ful enough kept stealthily in his palace a Hebrew 
physician. Even the Sovereign Pontiff himself was 
often known to indulge in that contraband and 
excommunicated luxury. 

All the physicians of Europe were then Jews. 
They affiliated with the highest social ranks, they 
kept aloof from, the lower. Social seclusion is pub- 
lic mystery. Over a community who devoutly be- 
lieved in the curative efficacy of relics, who flocked 
to shrines in their bodily infirmities, these marvel- 
lous men exercised a surprising power. The shrine 
could cure by miracle, but the Jew could cure by 
something more miraculous than that. 

This mysterious profession, who thus in the midst 
of Christian communities kept up an Asiatic life, and 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 



silently infused their ideas among all with whom 
they came in contact, issued from two foci — one at 
Salerno, in Italy ; one at Montpelier, in France. At 
these places there were medical colleges, carried on 
very much in the manner that medical colleges are 
now. The old proverb says, " Birds of a feather flock 
together." In the libraries of these colleges half 
the books were Hebrew, and the other half Arabic. 
Let us look at the shelves of Salerno. As might 
be expected, there are Arabic translations of the 
works of Hippocrates, Galen, Celsus ; Hebrew copies 
of the treatise on fevers by Rabbi Solomon Ben 
Isaac ; the Pandects of Aaron of Alexandria, who 
first described the small-pox ; the books of Judah of 
Fez, and Amram of Toledo. Conspicuous among 
the rest are the volumes of that ea^le of doctors, as 
his compatriots delighted to call Rabbi Moses Ben 
Maimon, known among the uncircumcised all over 
Europe as Maimonides. We can find appropriate- 
ness in his " Poisons and Antidotes," in his " Medical 
Aphorisms," in his " Preservation of Health." Not 
so, however, with his " Teacher of the Perplexed." 
It is a theological work. We thumb over a few 
pages, to see what it is about, and close it with the 
hope that its author, who was physician to the great 
Sultan Saladin, may not lead his readers out of per- 
plexity into something that is a good deal worse. 
Again, here are the works of Ben Tybbon, he dis- 
cusses the causes that prevent the waters of the sea 
from encroaching on the dry land : so geology had 
already begun. Here also is the u Cyclopedia of Avi- 
cenna." It is in twenty volumes, a worthy fore- 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 7 

runner of the " Britannica." Along with it are his 
books on health and remedies, his canons of physic. 
We dip at chance into some of his pages, and stum- 
ble on a chapter on the Origin of Mountains. He 
appreciates the modern geological doctrines of the 
disintegration of rocks and denudation. 

So it was a miscellaneous learning which these 
Jews and Arabs cultivated ; a part of it was of a 
kind that perhaps did them more harm than good. 
If we have any doubt on that point, let us look at 
the character of some of the patrons of Salerno, 
especially at the Emperor Frederick II. Institu- 
tions may be judged of by their fruits. It is a trite 
remark that history repeats itself; and what Victor 
Emmanuel is trying to do in our day, Frederick was 
attempting in those times. He was struggling for 
the unity of Italy, to give it one government, one 
language. His successor has encountered the same 
stumbling-block that arrested his progress. Far in 
advance of his age, " he instituted representative par- 
liaments, enacted the system of wise laws, asserted 
the principle of equal rights and equal burdens, and 
the supremacy of the law over all. He provided for 
the toleration of all professions, emancipated all the 
serfs in his domains, instituted cheap justice for the 
poor, forbade private war, regulated commerce, pro- 
fitably laying down some of those great principles 
which only in our time have been finally received as 
true, collected large libraries, caused to be translated 
such works as those of Aristotle and Ptolemy, built 
menageries for natural history, founded in Naples a 
university, made provision for the education of pro- 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 



mising but indigent youths. All over tlie land 
splendid architectural triumphs were created. Un- 
der him the Italian language first rose above a patois. 
Sculpture and painting and music were patronized."* 

But — and this is of chief interest to us — he lived 
in intimate friendship with the Sultan of Egypt, who 
was perpetually sending him philosophers, and doc- 
tors, and objects of natural history, and books. It 
had been well if the thing had ended here ; but to 
these less innocent gifts were added — an occasional 
bevy of dancing-girls, or a choice beauty from the 
harems of Cairo. We are told of the exquisite 
complexion, the flowing ringlets, the faultless figure 
of some of these miscreant ladies. Their eyes were 
made of liquid darkness, says one — a graphic and 
happy expression. 

From Salerno let us turn to Montpelier. The 
Alps and the Pyrenees conjointly watch over it, the 
Mediterranean is close by. In reputation it almost 
equalled its ancient Italian rival. But institutions, 
if they impart a tincture to the communities in 
which they are placed, reciprocally gather one from 
them. The pretty French town followed the fash- 
ions of the Spanish Moors, for these were the times 
when Spain was under the Mohammedan rule. If 
Salerno was influencing Europe through its scientific 
ideas, Montpelier was doing the same in a literary 
direction. From Spain across the Pyrenees "lite- 
rary, philosophical, and military adventurers were 
perpetually passing, and thus the luxury, the taste, 

* Draper's Intel. Develop, of Europe, p. 316. 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 9 

and, above all, the chivalrous gallantry and elegant 
courtesies of Moorish society found their way from 
Granada and Cordova to Provence and Lan^uedoc. 
The half-savage French and German and English 
nobles imbibed the Arab admiration of the horse — 
they learned to pride themselves on skilful riding. 
Hunting and falconry became their fashionable pas- 
times. It was a scene of grandeur and gallantry, of 
tilts and tournaments. The refined society of Cor- 
dova prided itself in its politeness. A gay conta- 
gion also spread from the beautiful Moorish mis- 
creants to their sisters beyond the mountains ; the 
south of France was full of the witcheries of female 
fascination, and of dancing to the lute and mandolin. 
Even in Italy and Sicily the love-song became the 
favorite composition, and out of these genial but not 
orthodox beginnings the polite literature of modern 
Europe arose. The pleasant epidemic spread by 
degrees along every hill-side and valley. In monas- 
teries, voices that had been vowed to celibacy might 
be heard , carolling stanzas of which St. Jerome 
would hardly have approved ; there was many a 
juicy abbot who could troll forth in jocund strains, 
like those of the merry sinners of Malaga and Xeres, 
the charms of women and wine, though one was for- 
bidden to the Moslem, and one to the monk. The 
sedate greybeards of Cordova had already applied to 
the supreme judge to have the songs of the Spanish 
Jew, Abraham Ibn Sahel, prohibited, for there was 
not a youth, nor woman, nor child, who could not 
repeat them by heart. Their immoral tendency 
was a public scandal. At every house in the south 



10 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

of France the wandering troubadour was a welcome 
guest. He sang c ladye-love and war, romance and 
knightly worth.' "* 

Placed in the midst of these bewitching associa- 
tions, the influences of Montpelier reached the less 
thoughtful classes of society. As if to illustrate the 
tendency, it was there that the first medical botanic 
garden in Europe was established. Science was nur- 
tured among flowers. That garden continued until 
recent times, and for anything I know the vestiges 
of it may still remain. Its winding walks led through 
beds where all the herbs of the pharmacopoeia were 
growing. In bowers of roses and cool grottoes of 
stone the Jewish doctor and his Moorish friend 
might discourse on the nature of diseases, and spe- 
culate on the modes of their cure. 

We may estimate the power exercised by Mont- 
pelier from the action of the French Government. 
The University of Paris procured a decree prohibit- 
ing any Israelite from practising medicine in France; 
and at the time of the banishment of the Jews from 
that country, a.d. 1306, when Profatius, one of their 
persuasion, was Regent of the Montpelier Faculty, 
not one of the professors or doctors was spared. 
They were expelled under such circumstances of 
cruelty, that many of them died in the public roads. 

I made the remark that the advice of physicians 
had often changed the current of human events. 
We have seen what their silent influence was, let 
us now look at an instance of their more open action. 

* Draper's Intel. Develop, of Europe, p. 351. 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 11 

Two Jewish doctors, Rabbi Abraham and Rabbi 
Joseph, came one day to King John II. of Portugal, 
representing that the continent of Africa could be 
sailed round. They had recently been to Egypt, 
and had brought with them an Arabic map of the 
African coast. Incited by this, the Portuguese mon- 
arch determined to make an attempt to double the 
Cape, in which they affirmed the African continent 
terminated at the south. A voyage in that direction 
is full of portents. The accustomed heavens seem to 
sink away at the north, and new stars are nightly 
approached. Vasco de Gama set sail in July, 1497, 
having w T ith him the Arab map. King John had 
employed his Jewish physicians, Roderigo and Joseph, 
to devise what help they could from the stars. They 
applied the astrolabe to marine use, and constructed 
tables. These were the same doctors who had told 
him that Columbus would certainly succeed in reach- 
ing India, and advised him to send out a secret expe- 
dition in anticipation, which was actually done, 
though it failed through want of resolution in its 
captain. Encountering the usual difficulties, tem- 
pestuous weather, and a mutinous crew, who conspir- 
ed to put him to death, De Gama at last succeeded 
in doubling the Cape and reaching India. 

The consequences of this voyage were to the last 
degree important. The commercial arrangements of 
Europe were completely dislocated. Venice was de- 
prived of her mercantile supremacy ; prosperity left 
the Italian towns. Egypt, hitherto supposed to pos- 
sess a pre-eminent advantage as offering the best road 
to India, suddenly lost her position ; the commercial 



12 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

monopolies, so long in the hands of the European 
Jews, were broken down. The discovery of America 
and passage of the Cape were the first steps of that 
prodigious maritime development soon exhibited by 
western Europe. And since commercial prosperity 
is forthwith followed by the production of men and 
concentration of wealth, and moreover implies an 
energetic intellectual condition, it appeared, before 
long, that the three cities of population, of wealth, of 
intellect, were shifting westwardly. The front of 
Europe was suddenly changed ; the British islands, 
hitherto in a sequestered and eccentric position, were 
all at once put in the van of the new movement. 

Now, considering the commercial and maritime 
development of the western European powers, is not 
tliis a striking instance of what a doctor's advice is 
worth ? And yet I will give you a still more impor- 
tant example. i 

I have been offering you historical reminiscences 
of our profession from a point of view hitherto much 
neglected; and doubtless you have remarked how 
continually the Jew and the Arab have , been pre- 
sented in company. How was it that they came to 
be thus associated? how was it that they had so 
much to do with the early affairs of medicine ? 

We must go back through more than a thousand 
years to find an answer. In those days the world 
was thrown into consternation by the sudden attack 
of armies, which, mysteriously issuing from the sands 
of Arabia, a country until that time almost unnoticed 
and unknown, spread simultaneously and irresistibly 
to the east, the north, the west. Before their impe- 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 13 

tuous assault, the decaying remains of Roman civiliza- 
tion could not stand. Religion, law, letters, art, all 
seemed to be in imminent danger of being remorse- 
lessly swept away. 

Who was it that had been the cause, the main- 
spring of this prodigious movement ? A man of con- 
templative habits, whose earlier life had been spent 
in the avocations of a merchant, his views enlarged 
by travel in foreign countries. Austere and abstemi- 
ous, he gradually withdrew from the pursuit of gain, 
and became, in succession, a hermit, a preacher, a 
soldier. Of imposing personal presence, and in a 
country where manly beauty is common, reputed to 
excel in that particular, he had compelled his coun- 
trymen to accept his opinions, with all the truth and 
all the delusion they contained, in part by the elo- 
quence of his tongue, in part by the more convincing 
argument of his sword. At first, in accordance with 
the destiny of his people, his hand was against every 
man, and every man's hand against him. He fought 
great battles, won great victories, successfully assert- 
ing his power as a law-giver, a conqueror, and master 
of men. 

From campaigns that had ended in the overthrow 
and devastation of Western Asia, the Mohammedan 
armies prepared for the invasion of Africa, and resist- 
lessly advancing, captured its metropolis, Alexandria. 
In that city was concentrated the literary wealth of 
the world. Its glorious, relics of the old times they 
destroyed, and, it is affirmed, used the books of its 
vast libraries, the collections of a thousand years, for 
the purpose of kindling fires in the public baths. 



14 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

To all human appearance there was the most immi- 
nent danger that a dominion of violence and igno- 
rance would be instituted all over the world. The 
resistless barbarian hordes who were sweeping over 
Asia and Africa, and threatening Europe itself, had 
for their watchword, " Plunder in this world, and 
Paradise in the next." When all that civilized man 
values was on the very verge of destruction, when it 
seemed that nothing short of a miracle could be of any 
avail, some doctors of Alexandria dissipated the thun- 
der cloud and made it descend in fertilizing showers. 

I can only give you here a brief abstract of the 
curious circumstances under which this important re- 
sult was brought about. You will find the details in 
Chapter XIII. of my recently published work on " the 
Intellectual Development of Europe." 

There was an outcast Christian sect, the followers 
of one Nestorms, formerly Bishop of Constantinople, 
who with their leader had suffered the pains of ex- 
communication for holding opinions, into the merits 
or demerits of which it is not worth while here to 
inquire. Of these people many were residents of 
Alexandria, and in the numerous Jewish population 
of that town found sympathy and friends. Among 
the educated Jews the profession of medicine had long 
been held in the most signal esteem, and on their part 
circumstances had made the Nestorians the deposi- 
tory of the doctrines of the old Greek physicians. 

The conquering Arab found among his vanquished 
enemies in these excommunicated Nestorians and out- 
cast Jews, ideas resembling in some important re- 
spects those he was enforcing with his sword. He 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 15 

condescended to take counsel with his victims, and — 
it is but a step from sympathy to admiration — he sur- 
rendered himself to their wisdom. So thorough was 
his conversion, that henceforth, as Humboldt has well 
remarked, he illustrated his power by his medical 
science. That impetuosity which had urged him 
through Asia and Africa, and far into Europe, now 
carried him into the domains of physical knowledge. 
He outstripped his teachers ; from being a destroyer, 
he became the founder of modern science and modern 
industry. Our great manufactures, such as that of 
cotton, owe their origin to him. Wherever he went 
he established schools and colleges. Among very 
many others, the College of Salerno, of which we 
have spoken, was his work. 

Will you excuse me in a momentary digression 
from my immediate topic? Among the events to 
which we are giving. our attention, there is one that 
deserves the notice of physicians, one that here may 
well call forth their warning voice. What vestige is 
there now of the victories of Alexander the Great, 
what impress remains of the battles of Csesar ? Time 
has obliterated the deeds of those conquerors. Pro- 
found as their policy was, it was deficient in any ele- 
ment that could give it permanence. Bat how is it with 
the work of the Mohammedan captains ? A thousand 
years have elapsed, and still it stands firm. The 
scimeter made, but Polygamy secured the conquest. 

In Europe, for every 106 male births there are 100 
female. Herein is a natural and unanswerable argu- 
ment against Polygamy. But from another point of 
view, see what is its result ! By the enormous fami- 



16 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

lies it yields, it compresses into the space of a few 
years events that might have been spread over cen- 
turies. It makes a homogeneous, and therefore a 
powerful, and therefore a dangerous population." It 
can satisfy its necessities only at the expense 'of its 
neighbor, and by the extinction or extermination of 
his men. Its course is run in a geometrical progres- 
sion. Considering how strong are human passions, 
how feeble is human control ; considering the prodi- 
gious power this system soon gathers for itself, and 
how aggressive in its very nature it must be, a people 
who tolerate its establishment in their midst, tolerate 
a most dangerous foe. What is now going on silent- 
ly and stealthily at the Great Salt Lake, in the heart 
of this continent, is fraught with evil to the future 
of the Republic, 

From this digression, and from the earlier history 
of the medical profession, when its interests were in 
the keeping of those who were strangers in race, in 
manners, and in religion to us, let us turn to our own 
times. Let us consider how far we, as a class of the 
community, are performing our duty — how far we are 
imitating the good works of our predecessors, guiding 
public opinion, and enlarging public thought. It is 
the incident of our position that our influence is 
imperceptible. We have no grand organizations 
which, in an open, an avowed, an abrupt manner, can 
compel the attention and force the compliance of 
men. We can only now and then lift a corner of the 
curtain that conceals the light of Nature, and in the 
gleam that issues forth let the people who are sitting 
in darkness see who and where they are. 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. If 

Whence, then, I will ask, have arisen those noble 
ideas which are fast changing all modern philosophy, 
and working their way through descending ranks of 
society — ideas which have modified our conceptions 
of the world and of our relations to it ? The scalpel, 
the microscope, the test tube, are the instruments 
that have furnished those ideas ; the dissecting-room 
and laboratory are the places of their birth. We 
need not inquire in whose hand it is that such instru- 
ments are, nor who it is that frequents such places. 
The physician influences men by appealing to their 
understanding — he elevates by extending their sphere 
of thought. He presents Nature in her most attrac- 
tive aspect, by offering her to our eyes in her proper 
position. He shows us our brotherhood to animated 
beings, rebuking our pride by teaching us how de- 
pendent we are, and that we are only a very insigni- 
ficant portion of a very mighty plan. He points 
out to us, and what can be more worthy of our pro- 
found attention, that Chain of Life of which Aristotle 
in old times spoke. Man is its final link, and the un- 
conscious, isolated cell that constitutes the primordial, 
the lowest plant, the first. It is anchored like a sus- 
pension bridge from the Realm of Matter to the 
Realm of Mind. It spans the gulf of infinite depth 
between them. 

Our relation to the lower forms of organization is 
manifested not only by the present position we hold, 
as respects them, but also by the course of our pre- 
vious life. We have not been set in our elevated 
post abruptly. It is the terminus of a journey we 
are making, or have made. We have passed through 

2 



18 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

a succession of typical forms, in a series continu- 
ally ascending in complexity and value ; and perhaps 
we may profitably meditate on the fact, that even at 
birth our life in this respect is almost over. And 
not we alone, but all other sentient beings. Their 
course is like our course. We all set out in the same 
car of life from the same point ; we all take the same 
road, but travel to different distances. One comes 
to a stop after a little advance, another goes on far- 
ther ; but man, destined for responsibility and immor- 
tality, completes his task to the end of the line. His 
fellow-passengers have dropped off at the way-side 
stations, here and there, to pursue their predeter- 
mined affairs in the positions at which they have 
arrived. 

A large portion of my own life has been spent in 
the study of physical science, especially of chemis- 
try, and this may perhaps be my excuse for continu- 
ing to present to you this aspect of nature. No one 
can devote himself to those pursuits without expe- 
riencing at once what might seem to be contradic- 
tory sentiments — pride and self-humiliation. Pride 
that it has been permitted to man to see so far as he 
does into the great scheme of the universe ; humilia- 
tion in recognising how frail and insignificant he is. 

What, then, are some of the latest truths that 
these physical senses teach ? They show us how tran- 
sitory, how dependent we are. There is a constant 
wear and tear of the human system. Particles that 
have served the purpose of forming it accomplish 
their office and die, and are replaced in due succes- 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 19 

sion by others. In this respect life is the result of 
an aggregate of deaths. The atmospheric air into 
which all this dismissed material eventually finds its 
way, is thus the cemetery of animal substance, of 
things that have once been organized, but that have 
lost their force, and lapsed into an inorganic, a life- 
less state. 

From this inorganic, this lifeless state, such sub- 
stances are destined to be recalled ; for, under the 
influence of the rays of the sun, carbonic acid, and 
water, and ammonia are decomposed, and taking the 
products that arise from that operation, plants group 
them into organized portions again, and use them in 
the construction of their various parts, leaves, flow- 
ers, stems, fruits. Plants thus constitute the forma- 
tive agents of the world of life. Animals are the 
destroyers. They organize ; we consume. And thus 
it is that the same material oscillates back and forth,, 
now a part of a plant, now a part of an animal, now 
in the air, and now in a plant again. It runs through 
cycle after cycle, ever returning to the point whence 
it set out, and ever setting out again. 

We are not, then, the special or exclusive proprie- 
tors of the substance of which we are -composed. 
Equally may the plant, and equally any animal, no 
matter how humble in the scale of life it may be, 
lay claim to it. We are bound to them and they to 
us by an indissoluble tie- 

If that is the lesson we derive from our best know- 
ledge of the mutations that happen to the plastic ma- 
terial which the hand^of nature fashions into so 
many beautiful forms, we are brought to the same 



20 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

conclusion by a consideration of the physical forces 
with which she invigorates it — the heat possessed by 
the different animal tribes, cold-blooded or hot, in 
their special degree, the chemical affinities and 
the electrical powers that preside over all the thou- 
sand combinations and decompositions perpetually 
occurring in the inmost recesses of the economy. 
44 In a waterfall which maintains its place and appear- 
ance unchanged for many years, the constituent por- 
tions that have been precipitated headlong glide 
finally and for ever away. For the transitory matter 
to exhibit a permanent form, it is necessary that 
there should be a perpetual supply, and also a perpe- 
tual removal. So long as the jutting ledge over 
which the waters rush and the broken gulf below 
that receives them remain unchanged, the cataract 
presents the same appearance. But variations in 
them mould it into a new shape. Its color changes 
with a clear or a cloudy sky. The rainbow seen in 
its spray disappears when the beams of the sun are 
withdrawn. So in that collection of substance which 
constitutes an animal, whatever may be its position 
high or low in the realm of life, there is a perpetual 
introduction of new material, and a perpetual depar- 
ture of the old. It is a form rather than an indivi- 
dual that we see. Its permanence depends altogether 
on the permanence of the external conditions. If 
they change, it also changes, and a new form is the 
result." 

An animal is, therefore, a form, through which 
material substance is visibly passing, and suffering 
transmutation into new products. In that act of 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 21 

transmutation, force is disengaged. That which we 
call its life is the display of the manner in which the 
force thus disengaged is expended. 

A scientific examination of animal life must in- 
clude two primary facts. It must consider whence 
and in what manner the stream of material substance 
has been derived, in what manner and whither it 
passes away. And since force cannot be created 
from nothing, and is in its very nature indestructi- 
ble, it must determine from what source that which 
is displayed by animals has been obtained, in what 
manner it is employed, and what disposal is made of 
it eventually. 

The force thus expended is originally derived from 
the sun. Plants are the intermedium for its convey- 
ance. For the sake of obtaining it, we use them as 
food. And here again remarks apply similar to 
those we have made respecting material substance. 
The correlation and conservation of force holds good. 
The assertion of the great Spanish Mohammedan, 
Averroes, is confirmed by all modern science, that 
the sum total of force in the world is ever the same, 
though it is parted among myriads of individuals, 
who d^aw from a common fountain their requisite 
supplies. 

The body that we have to-day is not the body we 
had yesterday ; we shall change it again before to- 
morrow. In the course of a year a man requires a 
ton and a half of material— that is, nearly twenty 
times his own weight — to repair his wasting organs, 
and to discharge his vital functions. In that short 
space of time, the human family alone casts into the 



22 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

atmosphere eighteen hundred millions of tons, and 
we are but a little fraction of the vast aggregate of 
animal life which all in its proper proportion is doing 
the same thing. 

From* Nature, which at this point of view presents 
us such an enchanting picture, let us turn to our- 
selves. Physiology rivals Natural Philosophy in the 
splendor and profound interest of its discoveries. 
We tremble on the brink of detecting the interior 
constitution of man. Will you hear me patiently 
while I give an example of what I mean ? 

No event has ever taken place in the world with- 
out spontaneously leaving a recoverable impression 
of itself. 

The hand that wrote those words has cast its sha- 
dow on the paper. A century hence, if the paper 
should endure, that shadow might be made visible 
to the eye* But moralists say, " What is more tran- 
sitory than a shadow ?" They find in it an emblem 
of things of a fleeting nature. When the light, or 
the object that has obstructed it, is withdrawn, the 
shadow u fleeth away, and continueth not.' 7 A sun- 
dial that has been telling the hours of the day pre- 
sents an unblemished surface when evening comes. 
Each morning it is ready for its task. The traces of 
the past seem all to have disappeared, but in truth 
they still exist, buried in the marble or the metal 
out of which the dial is made. 

They who have visited the dark rooms of photo- 
graphers know very well what I mean. The por- 
traits of our friends, or landscape views, may be hid- 
den, and invisible to the eye> but ready to make 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 23 

tlieir appearance as soon as proper means are resorted 
to, such as heat, or vapor of mercury, or sulphate of 
iron, or pyrogallic acid. Shadows are not such tran- 
sitory things as men commonly suppose. 

In the case of photography, we happen to know 
the proper means for development. The fact of 
chief interest to us is the imperishability of the pri- 
mitive impression. A spectre is concealed on a sil- 
ver or glassy surface, until by our necromancy we 
make it come forth into the visible world. Upon 
the walls of our most private apartments, where we 
think that the eye of intrusion is altogether shut out, 
and our retirement can never be profaned, there 
exist the vestiges of all our acts, silent but speak- 
ing silhouettes of whatever we have done. Can we 
say that among those phantoms there are not some 
on which we should be reluctant to have the cunning 
chemist try his art, and leave them, as the photo- 
graphers say, fixed ; some from which we should 
dread to hear the demand of the phantom of Endor, 
" Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up V 

If men were sure that their most secret doings 
were at such a risk, would not the world be better 
than it is ? 

A sunbeam or a shadow cannot fall upon a surface, 
no matter of what material that surface is composed, 
without leaving upon it an indelible impression, an 
impression which may, by the subsequent application 
of proper chemical agents, be made visible. In many 
cases we have ascertained what the appropriate 
agent is ; our failureJn others is due to the imperfec- 
tion of our knowledge, and not to any impossibility 



24 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

in the operation. Time seems to have so little influ- 
ence on these effects, that I can conceive it possible, 
if a new vault should hereafter be opened in the 
midst of an Egyptian pyramid, for us to conjure up 
the swarthy forms of the Pharaonic officials who were 
its last visitors, though forty centuries may have 
elapsed since their departure. 

But let us see how these facts bear, in a most im- 
portant manner, in the case of man. 

If, after the eyelids have been closed for some 
time, as when we first awake in the morning, we sud- 
denly and steadfastly gaze at a brightly-illuminated 
• object, and then quickly close the lids again, a phan- 
tom image is perceived in the indefinite darkness be- 
fore us. We may satisfy ourselves that this is not a 
fiction of the imagination, but a reality ; for many 
details that we had not time to identify in the mo- 
mentary glance, may be contemplated at our leisure 
in the phantom. We may thus make out the pattern 
of such an object as a lace curtain hanging in the 
window, or the branches of a tree beyond. By de- 
grees the image becomes less and less distinct : in a 
minute or two, it has disappeared. It seems to have 
a tendency to float away in the vacancy before us. 
If we attempt to follow it by moving the eye-ball, it 
suddenly vanishes. 

Now, the condition that regulates the vanishing 
of these phantom images on the retina is, that when 
they have declined in vigor to less than 1*6 4th of the 
intensity they had while in presence of the object 
that formed them, they cease to disturb the sight. 
This principle is illustrated when a candle-flame is 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 25 

held opposite to tlie sun, or any light having more 
than 64 times its own intrinsic brilliancy. It then 
ceases to be visible. The most exact of all known 
methods for measuring light — that by the extinction 
of shadows — is an application of the same principle. 

But the great fact that concerns us is this. Such 
a duration of impressions on the retina of the eye 
demonstrates that the effect of external influences on 
nerve vesicles is not necessarily transitory. It may 
continue for a long time. In this there is a corres- 
pondence to the duration, the emergence, the extinc- 
tion of impressions on photographic preparations. 
Thus I have seen landscapes and architectural views- 
taken in Mexico, developed, as artists say, months 
subsequently — the images coming out after the long 
voyage in all their proper forms, and in all their 
proper contrast of light and shade. The photograph 
had forgotten nothing. It had equally preserved the 
contour of the everlasting mountains, and the passing 
smoke of a bandit fire. 

Are there, then, contained in the brain more per- 
manently, as in the retina more transiently, the ves- 
tiges of impressions that have been gathered by the 
sensory organs? Do these constitute the basis of 
memory — the mind contemplating such pictures of 
past things and events as have been committed to 
her custody ? In her silent galleries are there hung 
micrographs of the living and the dead, of scenes that 
we have visited, of incidents in which we have borne 
a part ? Are these abiding impressions mere signal 
marks, like the letters of a book, which impart ideas 
to the mind, or are they actual picture-images, incon- 



26 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

ceivably smaller than those made for us by artists, 
in which, by the aid of a microscope, we can see, in a 
space not bigger than a pin-hole, a whole family 
group at a glance. 

The phantom images of the retina, as I have 
remarked, are not perceptible to the light of day. 
Those that exist in the sensorium, in like manner, do 
not attract our attention so long as the sensory or- 
gans are in vigorous operation, and occupied in bring- 
ing new impressions in. But when those organs 
become weary and dull, or when we experience hours 
of great anxiety, or are in twilight reveries, or 
asleep, the latent apparitions have their vividness 
increased by the contrast, and obtrude themselves on 
the mind. For the same reason, they occupy us in 
the delirium of fevers, and doubtless also in the 
solemn moments of death. During a third part of 
our lives, we are withdrawn from external influences 
— hearing and sight and the other senses are inactive ; 
but the never-sleeping mind, that pensive, that veiled 
enchantress,* in her mysterious retirement, looks over 
the ambrotypes she has collected — ambrotypes, for 
they are truly unfading impressions — and combining 
them together as they chance to occur, weaves from 
them a web of dreams. 

Nature has thus introduced into our very organi- 
zation a means of imparting to us suggestions on 
some of the most profound topics with which we 
can be concerned. It operates equally on the savage 
and on the civilized man, furnishing to both concep- 

* Odyssey, Book x., 1. 220-224. 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 27 

tions of a world in which all is unsubstantial. " It 
marvellously extracts from vestiges of the impres- 
sions of the past overwhelming proofs of the reality 
of the future ; and gathering its power from what 
might seem to be a most unlikely source, it insensi- 
bly leads us, no matter who or where we may be, to a 
profound belief in the immortal and imperishable, 
from phantoms that have scarcely made their appear- 
ance before they are ready to vanish away."* 

There are those who blame modern science for its 
disposition to lean upon visible nature in its explana- 
tions of things. But when we see the fruits that 
that method of philosophy has yielded, when we con- 
template the fair prospect it offers, are we not en- 
couraged to continue ? Why should we refuse our 
attention to the beauties and wonders that surround 
us on every side ? Let us listen to the appeal of 
"The Minstrel:" 

" O y how canst thou renounce the boundless store 
Of charms that nature to her votary yields I 
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, 

The gloom of groves, the garniture of fields ; 
All that the genial ray of morning gilds, 

And all that echoes to the song of even, 
All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields, 

And all the dread magnificence of heaven ; 
0, how canst thou renounce and hope to be forgiven I" 

(Beattie's Minstrel, Booh I. Stanza IX.) 

"What, now, is the principle that lies at the basis of 
these new and beautiful views of the world of or- 
ganization, and of the relationship of the myriads of 
beings that compose it — views in the development of 
which modern physicians have taken a leading part ? 

* Draper's Physiology, p. 416, 



28 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

It is the control of physical agents over the charac- 
teristics, the well-being, the very existence of living 
things. To this man himself offers no exception. 
His mode of life, his habits, are determined by them. 
Perhaps we can have no better illustration of this 
truth than in the few moments that remain this even- 
ing to look cursorily at ourselves. Physical agencies 
have moulded and are now determining the destinies 
of the American people. 

We commonly affirm that we are devoted to agri- 
culture. We count up the preponderating millions 
who spend their lives in that pursuit. We say that 
we are a producing nation. It is not so. Agricul- 
ture has never been practised in the United States. 
We are miners, not farmers. 

Let me illustrate what I mean. We clear land, 
and put a new field in tobacco. In due season we 
send the produce to market. We put the same crop 
in the same land a second year ; but if we try it a 
third or a fourth, we fail, for the tobacco will not grow. 

How is this ? The plant has exhausted the soil of 
one of its ingredients necessary to fertility — its pot- 
ash. Now, in the absence of that substance, which 
is essential to its very constitution, it can no longer 
come to maturity. What, then, is the difference be- 
tween the Virginian, who has been setting tobacco- 
plants to collect the potash from his land, and the 
Californian, who has been employing men to wash 
his soil for gold ? Both have sold or sent to other 
countries the inorganic material that was their source 
of wealth. Both have impoverished their estates. 
Both are miners. 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 29 

But the land is exhausted. What next ? It will 
cost more than the whole produce has brought to 
put the potash back. Then restoration of the old 
fields is out of the question. New ones must be 
sought. What does that mean ? Nomadic life. 

If the estate is large enough, perhaps it may last 
the old planter's time. But, as his sons grow up, 
field after field is destroyed. Their eyes are set on 
untouched lands in the West. Why should they 
reverence or love the daily deteriorating spot? 
Their hopes are elsewhere. So, moral results of the 
profoundest kind are springing from the physical 
conditions. 

Consider, now, what has been going on for the last 
two centuries along the whole Atlantic coast ; for 
what I have said is only a forcible presentment of 
what hag been going on everywhere. It holds good 
for the cotton, the wheat, the corn. From the shore- 
line there has been an onward march up the gentle 
incline of the continent. Strand after strand of fer- 
tile soil has yielded up its' wealth. The front of the 
vast phalanx has already touched those regions 
where the rains are uncertain, and therefore the sea- 
sons unreliable. Beyond them is the untrodden 
desert. It were well if we all realized thoroughly 
that great fact ! 

There were, then, physical conditions of sufficient 
power to put an end to that period of tranquillity 
which our predecessors vainly imagined would be 
perpetual. There must be rivalries for the mastery 
of the promised lands of the West ! 

In the vast field of a new continent are number- 



30 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

less paths for personal advancement. Unfettered by- 
political restraint, a free career is, among us, offered 
to every one, and this, we are disposed to believe, is 
the greatest glory and chief advantage of our times. 
But good fortune is rarely experienced without some 
alloy ; and we may profitably consider how far that 
intense Individualism, which is the inevitable issue 
of these conditions, and which characterizes our so- 
cial state, is a public benefit — Individualism of 
which you see the consequences in every direction. 
" Each man for himself," is a motto of which pro- 
found statesmanship can never approve. Its conse- 
quence is to make society a chaos of human atoms. 

But that is repulsive to the very principles of 
modern civilization. Our ancestors, in the days 
when European society was emerging from barbar- 
ism, bequeathed to us no legacy of more value than 
the use of surnames to mark out families. On that 
— the family — the fair superstructure of Christen- 
dom rests. 

If, now, we investigate the effects of the Individu- 
alism so characteristic of our times, do we not dis- 
cover that it is beginning: to touch this corner-stone 
of society ? A greed of gain, a desire for personal 
independence, and emancipation from domestic con- 
trol, invade the fireside and scatter the family. 
The homestead loses its attractions, the county and 
even the State cease to have any hold on the affec- 
tions ; nay, even the country itself is, by many, not 
weighed for a moment against their own transitory 
interests. 

But here I must pause. The lesson we gather is 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 31 

in conformity to the highest teachings of modern 
science. It is the absolute control exerted by physi- 
cal conditions and natural agencies over the doings 
of men. Influences like these we have heretofore 
overlooked, but we can overlook them no more. 
They select our path, guide our steps, prescribe our 
destiny. 

It is not to be wondered at that in thus asserting 
the control of nature over the well-being, and there- 
fore over the acts of men, physicians should have 
taken the lead. Their pursuits instruct them to 
adopt that view of things. In this they follow the 
example of their greatest and earliest names. More 
than twenty centuries ago, Hippocrates advocated 
those great truths. No physician ever writes a pre- 
scription, no surgeon ever performs an operation, 
without tacitly adopting them ; and it may be said 
that the unmistakable tendency of modern medicine 
is to find solutions of its problems and explanations 
of its difficulties in physical and natural principles. 

From the first ages in which they obtained recog- 
nition as a distinct profession, or body, physicians 
have thus influenced public thought, both by pre- 
cept and example. They have enlarged its sphere, 
and corrected its methods. They have been always 
in advance — never in the intellectual arrear of their 
times. On many occasions, when the future of the 
human race itself was a question, their ideas and 
acts have determined the event. Nor is their power 
in these days of increasing enlightenment on the 
decline ; on the contrary, it is becoming stronger 
and stronger. 



32 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 

In the exercise of that influence, academies, such 
as ours, have duties of no little importance to dis- 
charge. Since their first establishment in Italy, at 
the period of the Renaissance, a great change has 
occurred in the modes of disseminating knowledge, 
due chiefly to the invention of printing. They have 
succeeded to the position once occupied by the uni- 
versities. It is no longer from the chair of the pro- 
fessor, but at the session of the academy, that we 
seek for new additions to our knowledge. Learned 
societies have become the foci from which new dis- 
coveries and new inventions emanate. The universi- 
ties have sunk to the attitude of mere schools. 

It is for us, then, in our special sphere as physi- 
cians, to give what help we may to the investigation 
of nature, and especially to the investigation of the 
structure, the functions, the diseases of man. Oar 
incitement should be not merely the intention of 
relieving the infirmities with which w r e are called 
upon to deal, but also that equally noble one of in- 
creasing the happiness of our race by increasing its 
knowledge. The world is growing old. You can- 
not guide it now, as was done a thousand years ago, 
by appealing to its feelings. You must address its 
understanding. It has learnt to appreciate not only 
the good and the beautiful, but also that which con- 
tains them both — the true. To satisfy its desires 
for that, is an occupation worthy of the time and 
exertions of us all. 













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